Making Humanity a Multiplanetary Species: SpaceX Reveals Its Plan to Colonize Mars

If successful, colonization would have wide-reaching geopolitical implications.

September 27, 2016

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, unveiled his company's plans for sending humans to explore and colonize Mars at a Sept. 27 conference in Mexico. Musk's aspirations for the Red Planet have been widely known for years, and the inventor famously quipped, "I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Now Musk is taking steps to see that goal through: According to his plan, SpaceX will use a powerful new rocket system, the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), to reach Mars by roughly 2022.

First, SpaceX would launch an empty Mars vehicle into Earth's orbit, refueling and stocking it with supplies over the span of multiple launches between the ground and the orbiting rocket. Once fully supplied, the ITS would start its engines and chart a course for Mars. It would, however, have to wait for the optimal conditions before embarking on its journey. Mars and Earth move closest to each other once every 26 months or so; at that distance, the rocket could reach the Red Planet in …